The present invention relates to an alarm device comprising a housing adapted to be mounted adjacent to a ceiling, said housing including detector means and alarm means responsive to said detector means. The invention further relates to a housing for an alarm device.
Many different types of alarm devices are known, such as smoke, fire, gas and burglary alarms comprising various smoke detectors, gas detectors and infra-red light detectors in combination with different alarm means such as alarm sounder means and alarm lighting means.
The installation of alarm devices in homes and offices has become very important, and much effort is spent on designing good looking devices, which do not detract from the decor. As an example, smoke alarms are very often mounted as a box that is screwed into the ceiling of a room where there is a risk of a fire starting. Although such smoke alarms can be decorative, they are still foreign objects for a living room or an office. Similarly, burglar alarms are mounted as visible foreign objects and it may be undesirable for such alarms to be visible to an intruder.
It would therefore be desirable to have an alarm device that cannot be recognized as an alarm device by a person entering a room.
GB 2 221 074 A discloses a smoke detector device which, in use, forms part of a ceiling light fitting, comprising a housing adapted to be mounted adjacent to a ceiling and having an aperture in a lower-most surface thereof to allow the passage of an electrical flex cord therethrough, said housing enclosing smoke detector means and alarm sounder means responsive to said detector means. The housing can be of dimensions comparable to conventional ceiling rose light fittings, and this prior art smoke detector will not be visible as a smoke detector by a person entering a room where the smoke alarm is built into a ceiling rose light fitting hiding the connection between the cord of a swinging lamp and an AC power outlet in the ceiling surface.
From GB 2 290 900, a lighting smoke alarm is known, which smoke alarm is composed of two parts: a first part to be fixed relative to the ceiling, and a second part constituting a hollow or dome-shaped part to be arrested relative to the first part by means of a snap fitting or a threaded connection. The second part has a bottom hole through which the cord extends, and which hole is provided with a conventional unloading or relief fitting.
From U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,054, a further alarm is known having a two-part housing. The housing is generally configured as an egg having a top and bottom wire inlet and outlet, and it is provided with cord guiding elements serving to allow the housing to be suspended in the cord at a position below the ceiling.